Saturday, May 1, 2010

Monster Slayers of Meadville

Wizards just released a free kids version of D&D called Monsters Slayers Heroes of Hesiod. So today my youngest found the box of dice that I was given from Morningstar Games in Savannah GA. He wanted it and I said "sure you can have it as long as you take care of it". So he goes away for a 1/2 hour and comes back and wants to play a game with me. I said find as long as I get to play a game of my own with him. (He can be stubborn about trying anything new).

He games was fun, he used all my D&D props and setup this coliseum where each of our guys (lego figures) had to run around gathering energy barrels. How far we move is determined by a d20 roll. After a few rounds of this we switched to Monster Slayers.

Monster Slayers is a pretty simple game. Hit Points, Ascending AC, Move X squares, d20+bonus to hit, everybody has a special power or two that written on the cards. The adventure is simple as well. You completed your monster fighting training which every kid in Hesiod is required to do. Now for your final exam you have to fight four monster. A Bulette, A young red dragon, a beholder, and a swarm of pixie. Generally when a monster get to half hit points or there is only one the instructor will release another one.

It was a whole of fun, plus my boy can roll! He rolled a total of six nat 20s in the fight once two in a row! The rule and special effects are easy to referee.

The result four monsters dead and everybody was alive.He wants to play some more so I will work up another scenario for him. Probably use the Ruin of Ramat as finding a little dog seems to be a win with the younger kids.

Sounds like a lot of fun Rob. I'm sure oyu had just as much fun as your little one. I love the lego guys as minatures. Probably made it less scary for him. I know the last time you two played he got scared and ran out of the dungeon.

Bat in the Attic Games

How to make a Sandbox

The Old School Renaissance

To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time.

What are RPGs?

A game where the players play individual characters interacting with a setting with their actions adjudicated by a human referee.

Rules are an aide to help the referee adjudicate actions and to help the players interact with the setting.

Dice are used to inject uncertainty which make a tabletop RPG campaign more interesting than "Let's Pretend".

The only thing a player needs to do to roleplay a character is to act if he or she was really there in the setting in that situation.